


Brothers Like Them

by lionlannister



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Gen, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 05:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionlannister/pseuds/lionlannister
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint needs closure and Barney needs to own up to what he did.<br/>basically i really want a Barton brothers reunion so i wrote it myself</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brothers Like Them

Kate was watching him silently, she didn't know what to do so she'd called Cap, he was the one person that Clint actually trusted enough for Kate to feel comfortable telling. They'd been here for nearly three hours and she was worried, worried about what Clint was doing to himself out here in the cold Iowa winter. She was bundled up in multiple layers but Clint only wore jeans and sweater, it was as if his anger had made him impervious to the cold. He was staring at his father's gravestone and hadn't said a word since they'd gotten on the plane earlier that day. 

Had she known the reason he had gotten on that plane was that it was his father's birthday she would have called the tower before the plane took off, but he'd been so silent and still she was afraid to ask why they were flying to Iowa. For the first thirty minutes or so he'd been shaking with rage but that had left and now a scary stillness controlled his body. Not an inch of him moved except for his hair in the wind, his fists balled and white knuckled. Kate was certain that he'd heard her call Steve but even then, not a word from his mouth. She was scared. Clint was quiet about his past, didn't like to remember everything that had happened to him, and because of that she didn't know if he was going to cry or fly off the handle. Or worse, remain this still for hours. If he would show even an ounce of emotion she would feel better. 

"Hawkeye." Captain America's voice came from behind her and made her turn. She tried to smile at him but her face was frozen from the freezing wind that had managed to get through all of her layers of clothing. There was another man behind him, his hood was up and Kate couldn't make out his features. 

She stood and wrapped her arms about Steve's shoulders, thankful that he got here so fast even with what little she had told him. What little she knew. "Thank you, Cap, I just-- just didn't know who else to call. He hasn't spoken all day." They both knew how strange that was for the normally loud mouthed older Hawkeye. 

The man in the back pushed his way past the two talking heroes and removed his hood, Kate gasped when he turned to look at Steve. "Why'd you bring me here? He ain't gonna want to see me." Barney Barton looked just as surprised at his presence here as Kate was. What had Steve been thinking bringing him of all people? Barney hated his brother, or, that's always what Kate had been told. 

"You both need to work out this issue between the two of you, you're not a villain anymore, Barney, you're on the same side as your brother." Steve stared him down until Barney had the good grace to look embarrassed and turn his back on them, facing Clint's back. She looked up at Steve and frowned at him, his only response was a shrug and hopeful look in his eyes. 

Barney took a few steps forward, now closer to his brother than he had been in months. "Clint..." When he started to reach out a hand Clint shook his head, hard, and stepped even further from him.

Just seeing him move gave her some comfort, he'd been so still. "No, go away, Barney. Get the hell away from me." There was so much anger in his voice that Kate took a step closer to Steve, she'd never seen him like this before. Clint turned in place and met his older brothers eyes, his own burning in anger and hurt, scars that he'd thought he'd gotten over years ago burning to the surface. "You're no better than he was!"

Barney visibly flinched away from him and put his hands back at his sides. Staring at the ground he nodded his head before saying, "I know, I know," That was all he said before Clint moved forward and punched him in the jaw, as hard as she'd ever seen him hit another person. The older man fell to the ground without trying to defend himself. Steve and Kate stood completely still, neither wanting to get inbetween the two dangerous men. As Barney started to stand again Clint took another swing and hit his stomach, this time Barney stayed up-right. "I'm sorry, baby brother, I shouldn't 've left you there." 

"NO! You don't get to be sorry anymore, you had YEARS to be sorry. Years to come back for me but you didn't! You left me there with him, he was just like dad and you LEFT ME WITH HIM." Clint was screaming at the top of his lungs now, his eyes were red like he was holding back tears as he took more swings at his brother. He wasn't even trying to aim his hits, when he managed to land one it was more from Barney's lack of dodging than the skill that they all knew Clint had. 

It was only after Clint collapsed in on himself that Barney made any move towards him. His little brother sat on the cold ground, his arms clutching his legs to his chest and his body shaking with sobs he could no longer hold back. "You just fucking left me and never came back. I needed you. Brothers are supposed to stick together, but you abandoned me." Barney wiped blood from his mouth and kneeled next to his brothers shaking body. With an unsteady hand he reached out and put a hand on Clint's shoulder, afraid that he would buck out of his touch and strike out at him again. Kate looked up at Steve, who was only starring out at the two men and hoping that his plan worked out. 

"They won't be able to move on until they have each other to lean on, brothers like them need one another and it's been hurting them every day that they can't turn to the other one. Even if they'd never admit it." He was watching the two sitting next to each other, the only noise was Clint's crying and Barney's labored breathing. Kate nodded at Steve and let out the breath she had been holding since Clint took the first swing. 

"I was stupid and young and jealous. You were, are, something special, baby brother, and if I'd known what Trick Shot did to you I wouldn't have stayed away. I promise." Barney put his forehead on Clint's shoulder and let a few tears fall from his eyes. Everything Kate knew about Barney had been learned from others, Clint didn't talk about him at all but Kate knew that he'd missed him. One night she'd woken up on his couch to hear him screaming for his brother in his sleep, she had never mentioned it to him. 

Clint lifted his head from the cave of his arm to wipe the moisture from his face and shake his head. "You took his name, Barney, you became him. Even after you knew what he had done to me, what he turned me into." It felt like she should turn away, should drag Steve back to the Stark jet he'd taken here and let the brothers try and fix the mangled mess that was their relationship. She couldn't leave him though, couldn't let him feel this pain on his own. So she stayed and watched her partner fall to pieces with his older brothers arm around his shoulder.

The eyes that were so like their father's clenched shut and Barney squeezed his baby brother closer to him. He didn't try and fight that accusation, he had become Trick Shot and he was just a step away from becoming their father. Without any warning Clint jumped from his brother's touch and faced his father's gravestone again. The tears hadn't stopped but he started shaking again, out of anger that coursed through his veins. Anger that he always tried to keep in check, afraid of what he would become if he let it to the surface. "How could you do this to us! You were supposed to look after us! We were your sons," He seemed to deflate at that, he looked so tired as he fell back to the ground and his brother. "Your sons, what did we ever do to deserve that?" 

Kate could feel herself crying at his breakdown, she wanted to hold him until he stopped hating himself for the things his father and so many others had done, but Steve kept a hand on her shoulder to keep her next to me. Cap had looked away, giving the men all the privacy they could in the empty cemetery. 

"Come 'ere." Barney pulled Clint to him and let his brother curl up again. Looking so much like the close brothers she'd seen in photos hidden in Clint's closet at his apartment.


End file.
